Due to the nature of board games, tracing a specific history is impossible. Board games are seen in records and archeology as early as Predynastic Egypt, and have stuck with us ever since. As a result, the History of Board Games should be divided into a few categories: Ancient games, Classic Games, and Modern Games.
 
 Ancient Games – Many of the ancient games we have today (or have records of), are those which were played by the social elite. Although the first game seems to be an early version of Chess, games such as Go, Mancala and Backgammon also found early popularity. Through the years, Chess developed through dozens of iterations, ranging from as few as eight pieces per player to as many as twenty! It was a very long time before one “correct” version took world domination, approximately 5000 years.
 
 Classical Games – These are the games that were introduced and rose to worldwide popularity in the early 20th century. Monopoly, Risk, Clue, and so on. These games were published mass market, and are almost all still available today. Each has had several versions of it created, such as Risk 2020. Monopoly in particular has had dozens (if not hundreds) of versions, from Cat-opoly to Basketball-opoly. They tend to have few if any changes to the actual rules, but the names of each property differ based on the theme.  
 
 Modern Games – In the last 20 years, a great revolution occurred in the world of board games. Focus shifted from the massive American conglomerates to smaller, independent European games. These tend to focus on strategy and diplomacy, and reduce the luck factor significantly. Although many still use either dice or cards, luck is less relevant to who wins. These games include Ticket to Ride, Settlers of Catan, and Carcassonne.

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